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Mens Hoops: Purple Knights Win 59-48 Over SNH ... Still Miss Playoffs

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Created on Wednesday, 22 February 2012 03:29

Written by George Commo

Warech Reaches 1,000 points, Schilling Passes Tarrant in Rebounds

Courtesy St. Michael's Sports Information

COLCHESTER - Senior Tyler Schilling (Excelsior, Minn./Minnetonka) and junior Travis Warech (Pine Brook, N.J./Montville) both reached milestones on Tuesday for the Saint Michael's College men's basketball team, and the Purple Knights downed Southern New Hampshire University, 59-48, in each team's season finale in the Ross Sports Center. The Purple and Gold completed the season 11-15 overall and 10-12 in the Northeast-10 Conference, while the Penmen are 12-15 and 8-14. Both narrowly missed out on the 10-team NE-10 Tournament.

Warech became the 13th junior in Saint Michael's history, and the 41st player overall, to reach the 1,000-point plateau, knocking down a free throw nine seconds into the second half for his milestone point. He finished with five rebounds. Schilling snagged eight boards, with his third - just 2:02 into the contest - pushing him past Rich Tarrant '65 and into fifth in program annals in rebounds. Schilling completed his career with 886 caroms.

Freshman Corey Crawford (Dover, Del./The Phelps School) notched a game-high 13 points to go along with six rebounds for the Purple Knights, shooting 3-of-3 from deep, while senior Tom Ward (Brighton, East Sussex, England/Saint Francis [N.Y.]) also canned a trio of triples en route to 11 points in his final collegiate contest. Junior Derek Knutty (Rocklin, Calif./Whitney) and freshman Dom Ditlefsen (Portland, Ore./Sunset) each added 10 points, with Knutty going 5-of-6 from the floor with three blocks and Ditlefsen nailing three threes. Sophomore Mike Holton Jr. (Portland, Ore./The Winchendon School) had seven boards and three assists.

Saint Michael's shot 10-of-23 from three-point range while outrebounding the Penmen, 38-26, as well as limiting the visitors to 23.8-percent three-point shooting. Freshman B.J. Cardarelli (Manchester, Conn./East Catholic/Saint Thomas More) went 3-of-5 from deep for Southern New Hampshire, scoring 11 points, and senior Tory Stapleton (Rahway, N.J./Gill Saint Bernard's/Saint Thomas More) had 10 points.

Crawford's three-pointer 1:13 into the contest gave the Purple Knights the lead for good, as each of their first four buckets were threes prior to Knutty hitting a jumper with 8:08 remaining in the opening half. That sparked an 11-0 run, as Crawford drained two more treys before Knutty capped the stretch at 5:23 with another hoop to make it 25-11. The Penmen trimmed their deficit to 27-20 before Saint Michael's took a 32-22 lead into halftime.

The Purple Knights pushed their lead to 36-22 on a Ditlefsen triple 56 seconds after intermission, and Saint Michael's never led by more than 14 before Cardarelli hit two three-pointers 26 seconds apart to create a 54-46 game with 6:14 remaining. However, a Stapleton bucket with 5:23 to go provided the final points of the night for the visitors, and Saint Michael's tacked on the last three points.